Since its introduction in April 2013, 170,000 households have had their Housing Benefit capped. Of these, 107,000 are no longer capped, with 45,000 households having moved into work.

The latest Office for National Statistics employment statistics also show that the employment rate is at a joint record high of 75.3%, with a record 32.2 million people in work.

There are now a record 810,000 job vacancies at any one time, a rise of 17,000 since last quarter and 60,000 a year ago. There are 340,000 more job vacancies than in 2010.

Work and Pensions Secretary of State Esther McVey said:

Our priority is to have a fair welfare system that promotes work, while caring for those who cannot – and that is why we brought in the benefit cap.

I’ve seen for myself how long-term unemployment can blight families for generations. Behind these figures are real people who have moved into jobs and are improving their lives for themselves and their children.

The benefit cap incentivises work, including part-time work, as anyone eligible for Working Tax Credit (or the equivalent under Universal Credit) is exempt.

Households where someone receives Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, or the support component of Employment and Support Allowance and those claiming Carer’s Allowance or Guardian’s Allowance are also exempt from the cap.

The figures above relate to the number of households who have had their Housing Benefit capped.

The benefit cap statistics released on 1 February 2018 also include – for the first time – a limited set of experimental statistics on the number of households who have had their Universal Credit capped.

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Thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now signed up to provide their digital, data and technology services to government, and public bodies are utilising their expertise to drive the UK’s digital transformation.

And this quarter’s newly published sales data shows that we’re having an impact, with sales reaching £3.2 billion, with 48% of this being spent on SMEs. This means that £1.43 out of every £3 is going to SMEs.

The latest figures arrive not long after the 3rd birthday of the Digital Marketplace – created in 2014 by Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and Government Digital Service (GDS) to make government procurement easier and more transparent.

The platform hosts CCS frameworks including G-Cloud, Digital Outcomes and Specialists and Crown Hosting Data Centres.

Niall Quinn, Director, Technology Strategic Category for CCS says:

In the three years since Digital Marketplace was launched, we have overhauled the public sector procurement landscape, harnessing the expertise of innovative companies and giving thousands of SMEs the opportunity to supply to government for the first time. We’re now planning the next steps of our journey, making the platform and processes more commercial, more flexible and better tailored to the needs of users – both buyers and suppliers.

Warren Smith, Director, Digital Marketplace says:

We’ve started to bring the tools, techniques, technologies and culture of the internet to public procurement and contracting. What we’ve achieved so far is testament to an amazing team and the importance of user-centred, design-led, data-driven and open approaches, but we’ve only scratched the surface. The next 3 years, to 2020, will see a step-change where these approaches are mainstreamed across government.

In 2016/17 frameworks available through the Digital Marketplace contributed towards CCS delivering £725 million in savings including commercial benefits for taxpayers.

The Digital Marketplace website recorded over 1 million visits in 2017, compared to the same number in the whole of the preceding two years.

Thank you very much everybody. And I’m very pleased to be able to be here today at Wuhan University on this, my first official financial visit to China. And as we build our golden era of UK-China relations, what we do between us as two peoples is so very important as a fundamental of that golden era. In fact, the first visit I made to a country outside the European Union when I became the British Prime Minister was to China. What I saw then was a very confident, a very forward-looking country, taking an increasing role on the world stage.

What I have seen today from the young students that I have met is an example of that confidence, that forward looking, that desire to take their country forward. And I can say from the students and young people I’ve met today that China is in good hands for the future.

Of course, later in my visit here in China, I will be meeting with President Xi and Premier Li, and discussing some of the mutual interests and challenges that we both share. One of them I will be looking at today here in Wuhan, which is how we develop a cleaner environment for the future. But as I said, what underpins our relations, and as we build our global strategic partnership, is the people-to-people links. And this Spirit of Youth festival is a very important example of that. And I would particularly like to thank Jiang Shuying for everything that she has been doing as the Spirit of Youth Ambassador, to encourage those links between young people in the United Kingdom and China.

And today I’ve met Chinese students who’ve studied in the UK, UK students who are studying here in China. We have more than 150,000 Chinese students in UK universities, and we have, as part of the visit I’m making here to China, a UK-China agreement on sharing knowledge of early years education. We look at university; sharing of university knowledge and expertise, but actually it’s also good to share in the early years of education as well. We are seeing more Mandarin being taught in UK schools, and of course thousands of UK students here in Chinese universities.

And today I’m pleased to announce that we are extending the Shanghai maths teacher exchange which has been, I believe, a very good example of our people-to-people links and one of mutual benefit to both our countries.

So, by learning with each other and from each other we can continue to develop the bonds of friendship that we value, and the bonds of friendship on which our golden era and UK-China relations are built, bringing our people closer together not just now, but for years to come in the future. And I hope – I say to the young people here, you will be the future leaders of your country, and I hope that in future years you will continue to strengthen the ties between the United Kingdom and China.

Sellafield Ltd has today published the findings of an internal investigation into the disposal of potentially hazardous chemicals at our site last year.

In October 2017, a chemicals inventory check in our Analytical Services building identified potentially hazardous chemicals requiring safe disposal.

In line with industry best practice, we requested the assistance of the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team to assist with these disposals.

The EOD disposed of the identified chemicals, along with other potentially hazardous chemicals subsequently identified, using the recognised safest method: controlled detonation on the Sellafield site.

Following the safe conclusion of these operations, we initiated an internal investigation to understand the root causes and recommend steps to improve our future handling of these substances.

The investigation has now concluded. It found the following:

There were 2 root causes:

1. Our approach to conventional (non-radiological) safety is not always tailored to the risks and hazards of individual facilities

2. Priority was not given to the disposal of redundant chemicals. This was because they were out of the conscious awareness of the majority of people within Analytical Services

Additional findings:

• All of the redundant chemicals involved were on our chemical inventory but there was a lack of recognition of the risk associated with their degradation
• A strong nuclear safety culture resulted in the risk being identified by employees

The investigation proposed recommendations:

1. A site-wide review of potentially hazardous chemicals identified as requiring non-immediate action following last year’s inventory check. This will clarify who is responsible and will develop and implement a new approach for future chemical disposal.
2. An external benchmarking exercise to understand best practice for the management of complex chemical inventories.
3. A review of existing contracts to ensure specialist chemical advice and ongoing support is in place.
4. A new system for the oversight and control of chemical inventories.

Steve Bostock, Sellafield Ltd chief operating officer, said:

The Sellafield site is home to some of the oldest and most complex risks and hazards anywhere in the world.

It is our responsibility to make sure these hazards are managed in a way that protects our workforce, the local community and the environment.

We take this responsibility very seriously, which is why I initiated an investigation into last year’s chemicals disposal event at the earliest opportunity.

I’m confident we now have a full understanding of the circumstances and an improved approach to the management of chemicals, which will also inform our approach to other potential hazards on our site.

For more information, please contact:

Matt Legg: +44 (0) 19467 83566 matt.legg@sellafieldsites.com

Ruth Hutchison: +44 (0)19467 86227 ruth.hutchison@sellafieldsites.com

Forward facing CCTV image showing position of workers prior to near miss (image courtesy of South Western Railway)